CSI: American Carnage (Friday, May 31, 2019)
SUNLAND NM – The Professor and the strike force led by Little Timmy, pup reporter, trudge down the cracked asphalt of a road leading from a strange amusement park in the desert. Timmy says, Gee, Professor, that was one big baby back there. The Professor says, Yes, Timmy, I think we must have been at one end of a giant wormhole leading to alternate realities. I fear for a future in which our great nation is ruled by an enraged toddler, a diapered anomaly. Boris, genial triple agent, says, That seem a familiar alternate reality. Key element is unpredictability. Right from Poohteen. Sarah, Timmy’s friend from the resistance potluck, says, Yeah. The autocrat is not creative. He draws from a familiar playbook and will use anything to distract, disrupt, and defeat opposition. A diapered anomaly banging on the ground is useful. We see a baby. But the reality of the anomaly is quite different. It can turn murderous in an instant. The autocrat seems to have reached the point where everything can be its own opposite. Boris says, That is ominous, Sarahchik. Mohammed, Timmy’s old friend, says, Hey, look everybody! There is a big manhole cover! He points. The group looks. Sure enough, just off the road, is a large iron manhole. Boris says, What could it be doing here in middle of desert? The Professor says, It looks like an outlying entrance to the backchannels or perhaps even The Cyber. This could at least get us back to the border or even all the way to Washington if we can manipulate the space-time continuum with the Gibson Apparatus! The group trots to the manhole, Mohammed pries off the cover. Hey, he says, it’s as light as a Frisbee! He tosses it aside. A ladder leads down into the darkness. Sarah says, Let’s go! The group scrambles down into what seems a familiar tunnel, its rock walls glistening with moisture. Timmy says, We’ve been here before. The Professor chuckles, cleans his pipe, and taps it on his shoe heel. He says, Of course we’ve been here, Timmy. This is a portal to The Cyber. You know that in The Cyber everything is as always. In other words, is is as was and will be, and there is everywhere at once. Once you have entered The Cyber, you are where you were and will be. Timmy says, Gee, Professor, I never thought of that. Mohammed says, What’s that sound? The group listens. The tunnel is filled with the sound of weeping mothers and the wails of distraught children. Sarah says, It is the sound of the border, the cries of the mothers and their children are now permanently embedded in the landscape. The autocrat has crafted a border of suffering and pain, an enticing desert of misfortune and affliction. It is inexpressibly cruel. The autocrat is in love with such contradictions and paradoxes. He will take what is beautiful and hopeful and transform it into a knot of anguish. He pours himself everywhere and occupies everything. Timmy says, Shhh! What is that other sound? The strike force listens. Boris says, Yes, I hear it. It sound like squishy. It sound like sponge being squeezed. What could it be? It ees everywhere now. Sarah has a thoughtful look. She says, I believe that is the sound of hands wringing. Yes, definitely. Much hand-wringing. The Professor says, Could it be? Sarah says, It is quite possibly the sound of many political figures frozen in place but for their hands. Their worry animates their handwringing. They must be wondering if they will be required to do something about the autocrat. – Friday, May 31, 2019